Tempest: a survival roguelike in Pico-8

Posted: May 6, 2017

Tempest is a survival game built in pico-8. It’s challenging, but it’s also a lot of fun.

Pico 8 is a “Fantasy console.” Basically, it’s an emulator for an 8-bit home computer that never actually existed. The games are built in Lua, and distributed as “cartridges” which are png files. It’s super neat! And you can use it to make things like Tempest.

Try it, don’t get discouraged if you suck. This game is pretty hard.

From the about page:

How to survive your first day:

When you wash up you’re nearly dead, hungry, tired, and exhausted.
Your health will drop if any statuses (hungry,tired,exhausted,cold) are in the red.
Resting while your statuses are ok will restore health
Quickly drink some water from your flask. (x -> items -> flask -> drink)
Find some fruit/berries and pick them then eat them.
Salvage wood from your boat, and chop down another tree and get the logs
Build a shelter, eat, drink and rest, stay warm
After this, focus on finding freshwater (it has white sparkles) so you can drink and fill your flask
Then try and find some stone and build a cabin which will replenish your stamina fully
Build bridges to new areas

Features:

Day night cycle
Weather
Temperature (it’s colder at night and when it’s raining, stay warm in your shelter/cottage)
Simple menu system
Procedurally generated world
Bridge building
Building wells that fill with water when it rains
Plants grows overnight while you’re resting
In progress
Farms and farming

Plans

Fishing minigame
Wild animals and fences to keep safe
Disallow some stuff at night to incentivise you to work during the day